Isaiah 40:9-17, Who Is This?

Isaiah chapter 40 verses 9 to 19 Hear the word of the

Lord Get you up to a high mountain Oh Zion herald of good news

Lift up your voice with strength Oh Jerusalem herald of good news lift it up fear not

Say to the cities of Judah behold your God Behold the

Lord God comes with might and his arm rules for him Behold his reward is with him and his recompense before him

He will tend his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms.

He will carry them in his bosom and Gently lead those that are with young Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span?

Enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains and scales and hills in a balance

Who has measured the spirit of the Lord or what man Shows him his counsel

Whom did he consult and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

Behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales

Behold he takes up the coastlands like fine dust Lebanon would not suffice for fuel nor are its beast enough for a burnt offering

All the nations or is nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness to whom then will you like in God or what likeness or what likeness compare with him an

Idol a craftsman cast it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and cast for it silver chains

May the Lord had his blessings for the reading of his Holy Word Well, it's

Christmas season again and most Christians in America just assume that we're gonna throw ourselves into the holiday and Make the most of it because after all it's about the birth of Christ But to that first the

Biblicists in me because they think this we just should go along with it About the birth of Christ and first the Biblicists in me

That is the Bible only guy wants to say what who says that Jesus was born in December 25th The Bible never says that but nowhere in Acts or the epistles.

Does it show the church celebrating his birth? I'm not sure of the history when the first birth of Christ celebration came about but it was sometime much later after the first century

Okay, the the supporter of the Christmas might say back Okay, but we often celebrate the birthday of important people and Jesus is the most important person

So let it make sense that we celebrate it sometime. So why not December 25th?

I'll pick a date somewhere. Well the Puritan in me responds. Yes, but Jesus is so important We celebrate his birth and death and resurrection

Every Lord's Day every first day of the week. In fact, that's what we come to church for throughout the whole year

After all if you say that we'll focus on the Incarnation that is God becoming man for about a month

Okay, this is the Incarnate Advent. They call it This is the Incarnation time where we think about that then aren't you saying by implication there?

We're not gonna Think or talk or celebrate the Incarnation or really about Jesus the rest of the year

So it may be around Easter and then that's another part of Jesus's life Aren't you implying that? I mean you do understand where like Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday And all these things carnival where they come from They come from well, we got to be holy in the next few weeks.

So now we're gonna be sinful. Yes That's the idea. I don't have to be holy for my whole life just in this time the same thing with Christmas We'll think about Jesus done this time so we can forget about him the rest of the year

And so the rest of the year, what do you do in church? Well, maybe you encourage morality you learn wisdom you hear motivational speaking train your children how to be nice and successful Is that what we do the rest of the year if we confine?

Jesus talk to the Christmas season or maybe the rest of the year, of course, what many people do is they don't go to church at all

That's the rest of the year is kind of forget about Jesus season But the champion of Christmas will reply.

Ah, but that's just the point Many of those people aren't going to church Except for Christmas and maybe

Easter and so when we have their attention even though for a short period of time around Christmas We've got to take advantage of their openness their openness to come to church the openness to hear about Jesus We got to take advantage of this time of year

So we should talk about Christmas and we should sing carols and do cantatas and dramas and living in nativity scenes in order to hook them

Hope get them hooked and come back Maybe the rest of the year some other time of the year.

Well the evangelical in me thinks You know, they have a point.

Okay, they have a point We've got to be Relevant at least like we're engaging what's going on around us if everyone around us is thinking about something if it's kind of in the air

Especially if it's about Jesus and it's in the air. Well, it makes sense that we address it We talk about it too.

So we try to use it to further knowing Jesus. Okay, I grant that much

But we have to be careful. Mr. Christmas guy That we're not letting the culture tell us what to sing and to preach about what part of Jesus to talk about Why is it by the way that our society focuses so much on the birth of Jesus baby

Jesus? but so little on Jesus Okay, my now exasperated kind of eye rolling

Christmas fan friend thinks but this isn't like, you know This is like Mother's Day like having a

Mother's Day service Welcome with all the mothers. Please stand up We'll give you a rose and honor who's the oldest mother and who's the newest mother and sing a mother adoring song

Kind of that kind of thing or maybe the 4th of July You know with bunting hanging from everywhere and a flag and honor guard coming down the middle of the aisle

As we all sing the national anthem just as hardly as we sing worship songs It's not that kind of cultural religion.

This is after all about Jesus And I say sure

That makes sense But the Christian in me the Jesus follower hopefully wants to make sure we're talking about the right

Jesus Again, why is it that the culture what the Bible calls the world?

And remember from Romans tells us to be kind of suspicious about the world. You know, if the world isn't isn't helping us

Understand the world is an enemy three enemies of the Christians that the world the flesh and the devil the world's against us and if the

World is emphasizing something. We're gonna wonder, you know, have we fooled it into celebrating a

Christian holiday or is it fooling us? to just emphasize something just So narrow that we lose sight of the big picture

The culture has decided to make such a big deal about Christmas. Why? Is it because they like the baby

Jesus? With Jesus who's also has all the sweetness of a babe in a manger with none of the downsides, you know

No crying he makes after all babies are cute and they're completely unintimidating. No one's scared of a baby

Maybe scared of changing a diaper occasionally, but not of a baby And so the world doesn't mind a baby

Jesus indeed in that incisive social commentary I want to be on insight into the into this culture

I have just the suggestion for you that social commentary. You can probably stream it somewhere

Talladega nights, you know a comedy with Will Ferrell in the movie Ricky Bobby the main character prays over a meal to baby

Jesus hilarious scene When is he prays to baby Jesus dear baby Jesus and his wife interrupts him in the middle of prayer and tells him, you know

Honey, you should pray to the grown Jesus and he responds quote. I like the

Christmas Jesus best the baby version Jesus And then he proceeds to pray to quote tiny infant

Jesus eight pounds six ounces I don't know where he gets that from and then he says he's under contract in his prayer to mention power aid so he's got to have a product placement there and Someone else at the table says that he likes to think about Jesus like to think of Jesus with a tuxedo t -shirt on We're seeing one of those t -shirts.

It's a t -shirt but looks like a tuxedo because he says it's kind of formal but it's also Partying and he likes to party and then his kid speaks up and says he likes to think of Jesus as a ninja

And it's funny because it's true that people like to think of Jesus as who they want him to be

That's partly why Christmas maybe mostly why Christmas is popular because people can imagine the baby

To be any way they like him But who is he

That's what this passage from Isaiah 40 is all about starting verse 9. It shows us who

God is Remember the setting of this passage Judah has been viciously attacked been mauled by the

Assyrian army that ravaged the country burning down towns besieging walled cities like Lakeish and paling and flaying alive men and killing many others and Then they started to besiege

Jerusalem the capital city the big city and they taunted there outside Jerusalem King Hezekiah's men who were all the people of Jerusalem were on a wall and his emissaries

Hezekiah's men were on the wall They're listening in front of the people that the Sennacherib men serious taunting them as they were listening purposely speaking

Hebrew So that the Jerusalem lights would understand and then to frighten them.

This is what called now we call propaganda Is there another term for psyops? I guess telling them that no other gods, you know

No one of these other gods have saved their cities. We went to the Philistines. We destroyed their city Their gods didn't save them.

Who do you think you are? The Lord's not gonna save you Archaeologists have recovered Sennacherib's account of the

Judah campaign Sennacherib boast how he captured 46 fortified cities in Judah That's fortified cities with walls around them took two hundred thousand one hundred and fifty captives

Probably didn't a probably wasn't able to take most of those captives back But whatever he that's originally took two hundred thousand one hundred fifty captives and and had

King Hezekiah quote shut up like a caged bird What Sennacherib doesn't report because back then

Empires never reported bad news about themselves Was that his army was wiped out outside of Jerusalem by an angel of the

Lord Who was probably using biological weapons spreading the plague according to Herodotus and so Jerusalem itself out of all

Judah is spared But Judah the country around Jerusalem is in shock at the disaster that swept them

And so the Lord says in verse 9 Speaking to the survivors in Jerusalem remember besieged

But they've survived he said the Lord tells them get you up to a high mountain.

Oh Zion Zion's another name for Jerusalem Go up to a high mountain to make it easier for the message to spread to broadcast

We're to maximize our ability to communicate. So using Christmas to talk about Christ.

Sure. It makes sense use What you can to spread the message get you up to a gym

If you can use that to shout the good news in basketball country Just make sure you're talking about the true

Christ when you're doing it go up to a high mountain Tells him in verse 9 go to the place from that's best for proclamation

He addresses them as Harold or other words are his messenger of good news not a verb to Harold be

Harold That's who you are you survivors in Jerusalem. You've seen what the Lord's done how he spared you now.

You are the messenger You're the Herald the people of the Lord spared in Jerusalem the people have been spared from God's judgment are to be the messengers the broadcasters of his good news

To the rest here to the rest of the country us to the rest of the world lift up your voice with strength He says over shout with strength declare

Don't just be meek and mumbling about it Jerusalem That's the remnant of the invasion

Herald again preacher of Good news, you've been spared tell the nation tell the rest of the country tell the rest of the people that those in the

Lord is Spared from judgment are to proclaim the good news says lift it up There near the end of verse 9 lift up your voice with all your volume

Shout as loudly as you can make your proclamation as obvious as possible

Communicate effectively Say to the cities of Judah Remember have been ravaged many of the destroyed many people killed those other towns

Where's so much disaster has come many of them taking captives now probably many of those captives are able to come back now

Because the Assyrian army is basically wiped out But some of them are streaming back to burned -out houses say to them

Say to whatever survivors there are left from that judgment that came on them. What do you say?

Not that God is just a baby No one to be feared eight pounds six ounces Because that's the way we like to think of them say at the end of verse 9

Behold your God Behold he is

For qualities here in this passage. He's mighty but meek Second he's omnipotent

Meaning all -powerful Third he is omniscient meaning all -knowing and finally

He's awesome First behold the second behold in verse 10 the first behold

In the universe 9 behold your God look on the worst look behold means to think carefully

See who he really is Don't just assume that you know him what you've been told as a kid what you were raised with don't just accept what the culture around you

Thinks God is like this is convenient for them You're sure to get him wrong.

If you do that Behold him who he really is Three times were told here in this in this passage to behold look at him.

Who is he? Well behold look at this He comes with might in verse 10

He's mighty He's just wiped out 185 ,000 Assyrian soldiers around Jerusalem He sent

Sennacherib scurrying back to Nineveh where he was later stabbed to death by his own sons His arm is the extension of God's power his arm rules for him

This is what we pray for in the Lord's Prayer when we ask your kingdom come may your arm your power

Break through into this world extend your rule on to earth and destroy evil.

That's what we're praying That's what abolition is opposing slavery because the Word of God had turned their hearts against it

That's what they saw when they looked at the United States Army marching south Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the

Lord He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored He has loosed the faithful lightning or his arm of his terrible swift sword

This here in Isaiah or the song in the Civil War or the prayer your kingdom come

This is not about it kind of an otherworldly mystical escapist kind of feeling of triumph of a sense of inner peace and a holiday seasoned but is no practical application is all to escape the reality that Whatever a horrible reality dad still an abusive alcoholic mom is a materialist who thinks buying things the solution to every problem and Shopping is the real reason for the season

The kids are spoiled rats who thinks Christmas is all about Santa giving them whatever Thing they want whatever the next trinket or video game

No, it's not escapism. We're talking about here with his arm extended It's about real -life victories over evil here.

It's about the Assyrian army destroyed outside Jerusalem It's about slavery destroyed in America about dad overcoming alcoholism and mom being content without having to get the newest coach first Are the kids getting baptized?

Behold Third look others notice pay attention in the middle of verse 10

Pay careful attention stop going along with what the culture tells you

God is like behold what he's really like see his reward is with him and his recompense is before him

He rewards we know what that means, right? There's blessing and recompenses reward is usually positive

Recompenses usually negative reward is like Jerusalem being saved from the Assyrian siege recompense would be

Affliction would be punishment that God lets loose when he if he doesn't rescue you from your siege his judgment

See what God rewards his people for he reward them for their obedience their faithfulness See that he judges and condemns those who oppose him.

He judged to destroy the Assyrian army What about all those but you think well, what about all those

Israelites who were destroyed by the Assyrian invasion those four to six forty six Fortified cities there they obliterated in Judah and those two hundred thousand one hundred and fifty captains they took

That was their recompense You know Isaiah had been telling them We haven't the first part of his book have been telling them that the judgment was coming if they didn't repent

They didn't repent of their greed or idolatry their lack of justice, especially for the poor and Isaiah chapter 20

He evens the Prophet himself. He strips down to his underwear probably and Every day for three years he walks around Think I believe around Jerusalem like that barefoot

Strip to his underwear Portraying what it's going to be like saying by doing that by example.

This is what you're going to go through When judgment comes and you're taken away by a foreign invasion, but they wouldn't listen

And so recompense came Recompense came to Americans fighting for slavery So then the

Civil War one out of four of them were killed and about another one out of four wounded God loses the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword and punishment comes in this age on this earth

So don't think recompense is always it's another age. It's otherworldly. It's another life

It's about hell and for now though we couldn't enjoy ourselves would be no judgment. No. No recompense can come now

But even when it waits to another age Even who waits to come in hell?

It will seem very real then Because it will be real Who is he?

He's not just an eight -pound six -ounce baby. Who does it cry? He's the judge of those who are not his of unbelievers of mockers

Like Seneca ribs men outside of Jerusalem boasting that you know, no other no other gods

Have been able to stop Stop us So the Lord won't either

But for his people in verse 11 He is their shepherd He will tend his flock like a shepherd there in John chapter 10.

Jesus says that he is The Good Shepherd and like a good shepherd. He lays down his life for the sheep

That's how he how he tends his flock. He lays down his life for them. He protects them He does it notice in verse 11 here with his arm again

It's just his arm For a second time the same arm that to his enemies is mighty and punishing bringing recompense that arm for a sheep is for gathering

He will gather the lambs in his arms Carrying them says here close to his bosom close to his heart

So that no one can snatch them out of his arms He will gently leave the lambs paying special Attention special care to the weak lambs like those with baby lambs

He is mighty he's judging the recompenser To his enemies and he's a meek shepherd to his sheep he's both mighty and meek and if you lose either of these if you let

Christmas so focus you on a on a meat baby, no crying he makes and You and by that you lose his mightiness

Then you're not beholding Who he really is Who is he?

He's omnipotent First twelve begins a series of rhetorical questions meant to to clear the field of all but the

Lord Who is he? Is he another tribal God like the

Assyrians thought he was standing outside of Jerusalem just just mocking him He's no more able to save Jerusalem then then

Dagon was able to save the Philistine city of Ashdod Is he like that? And she's an ancient myth kind of God Is he a baby just just tiny infant

Jesus eight pounds six ounces Now sure, he was a baby and that's the great mystery of the incarnation that God became flesh and dwelt among us

Emmanuel Isaiah himself calls him earlier first few chapters He's gone with us who was simultaneously a baby and the

Lord God omnipotent How is Christ both a child in a manger needing to be fed like any other baby and at the same time

The word through whom all things are created How is that possible?

Behold the wondrous mystery Well the question to verse 12 who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand

Who is so immense than in his palm he can fit all the Atlantic the

Pacific the Indian the Arctic Oceans all the lakes and the rivers all the water on other planets and moons do

I guess have you ever flown over the Pacific and looked out the window of the plane and Seen nothing

But ocean for as far as you can see you're at 35 ,000 feet You see a long way and there's nothing but ocean and who knows how deep it goes

And it goes on like that for hours And yet to God it's all just like a few drops that we put in our palms

Who is this? behold Behold that he was a child

What child is this? Who has enclosed the the dust of the earth in a measure

Oh as he put all the soil including all the the mountains and the hills and the rocks Like a baker using a measuring cup to bake a cake

But a half cup of dirt teaspoon of water by God's measurements

Mix it up a little bit Make the planet Earth throw it out there. That's one planet down Who could put the

Rocky Mountains or the Himalayas on a kitchen counter scale one side of the balance? Who does that?

He's omnipotent It's all powerful So much greater than we are that the things that seem so enormous

To us are infinitely miniscule to him

Who is he? He's omniscient and it's all -knowing

In verses 13 and 14 more questions To humble us questions are meant to get you to think think about how small you are how great he is

To amaze us to get us to behold who the real God is not the tame

Cultural gods who are unthreatening who has measured the spirit of God it asks.

How would you even do that? Or who has shown him what he knows now the SAT can perhaps show you what you know

But who could test God and get an appraisal of his IQ where on the range he is

Whom did he consult in verse 14, you know when he needed laws of physics to build the universe with Who taught those laws to him?

What university did he graduate from to learn astrophysics quantum mechanics the intricate mathematics of nature?

How did he learn the laws of biology? You know science is all about trying to find

God's ways how we design the universe That's why true Christians have never been against real science many of the founders of modern science were

Christians Of course now we know that the universe is so much more detailed and finely tuned than Any one person could possibly learn in the even if he did nothing for all his life and just try to study it

He couldn't learn it all could come close Yet God Knew it all from the beginning

He learned it all from no one who taught him it asked here the path of Justice in verse 14, you know, no one taught him that the right ways for nature or human society

Taught him good laws jurisprudence No one educated

God or trained him in logic He simply knew it all already

He's omniscient all -knowing Who is this?

Did he was a child what an amazing thought what child is this Well, he's awesome.

I Hate that that word has been so emptied of his meaning has been trivialized over the last iteration by people saying, you know

Whatever that burrito that was awesome Finishing a 5k. That's awesome

Making a three -point shot. That's awesome Cleaning your room. That's awesome HD TV, that's awesome.

No, it's not You know, we need a word for things that are really awe -inspiring. I look for another word synonyms

I couldn't find it still stuck with awesome But the thing is they empty to the word of all the meaning we need something to Expresses what it's like to be stopped in your tracks stunned at the enormity of the greatness of something just so far beyond us like Standing on the brink of the

Grand Canyon Or out of the countryside at night and you see some star -filled sky

And you get just a glimpse of how huge it is and how small you are

Something that vast that makes you feel tiny that really makes you stop thinking about yourself at all

As you get a glimpse of something just so enormous so it's beyond you. It was bigger than you

That's what awesome was supposed to mean and starting verse 15. We behold that our God is really

Awesome, who is this behold in verse 15 the fourth kind of delayed? Look see pay attention

This is who the real God is Not the cultural one You thought

God was someone you could ignore You go about your life just making money getting a house and stuff and savings

Building a business and forget about God you didn't think you didn't think he was an eight -pound six -ounce

Infant or a ninja or anything because you didn't stop to think about him at all You were too busy beholding the dollars coming your way

Or maybe you beheld power Impressed by those who wield it money gives you power If you have enough of it, you can get people to do your bidding

You can get schools to accept your kids and get people to pretend they respect you And so if you could get only get more money you'd have more power and so you'd be back you're back

To not beholding God at all too busy getting those dollars to behold him

You're just looking for the wealth or maybe Like the officials of Sennacherib Emperor of the

Syrian Empire standing outside Jerusalem Talking about the Lord as if he were another mythological

God And it's a superstition for weak people left over from primitive times. Maybe like them.

I Don't think this is true of anyone here But there's people out there like that Who mocked the true

God? Like Sennacheribs men outside Jerusalem, we have scoffers today Who think the

Lord is just another ancient mythology. He's just the one we haven't overcome yet Now if that's you,

I don't think that's you here. But if that's you you think you know better than belief in God Like some scientists who's they spend their life studying nature astronomers study the universe

Biologists study life and yet they say there's no need for God Really? How is that You think science would tell them up better?

Science has now proven that the universe had a beginning science has no explanation for what life came from Biologists tell us where does life come from you study all the time?

How come you can't figure out life? Where I came from maybe it came from God Scientists have learned the universe at a beginning.

I was a well -done Science show actually still in the midst of watching it on Netflix called our universe and which admitted the shows that admitted already that Outright that the universe had a beginning

We also know that the universe cannot create itself just kind of logically if something doesn't exist it can't create

Itself, you know, you don't exist You can't create something because you don't exist to create can't create so before the universe existed

It could create itself, but also the laws of thermodynamics shows of the universe had a beginning it was created

It but it also has those laws also showed the universe has no capacity to create itself because matter slash energy

Can't be created. It's one of the laws of thermodynamics. Did you know that matter energy? It cannot be created or destroyed so since the universe was created and Could not create itself then logically.

It's not hard logic Actually, there had to be creator beyond the universe beyond nature literally

Supernatural we call this creator God And here God speaks back to the scoffers

Starting in verse 15 scoffers like those men outside Jerusalem from Sennacherib So your God's not any different than the other pagan gods.

They didn't stop us the Lord won't either Here he speaks back to them and fifth verse 15 behold

See who this true God is the nations to him

They're like a drop from a bucket Or fill up a bucket to the spigot You drop us if you spill a drop as you're carrying it.

You're worried about that. But oh, no, I lost a drop In this whole bucket. Yeah, just drop not even enough to worry about mopping up That's what the the nations are the whole world to God The whole world all the nation together

With all their populations and their governments and all their militaries and all their weapons and their cultures

Thousands of years of Chinese culture with this Confucianism and dynasties Indian culture with this poetry

It's a huge population like Chinese Western culture with this many subcultures like the French and the Italian the

Spanish the German the British the American African cultures like Ethiopia goes all the way back to biblical times all the nations and the tribes on earth put them all together and To God They're like a drop spilled out of an overflowing bucket

Not even worth. Okay. I lost it all never mind. It's not worth worrying about There to God like the dust on scales

You see some merchant setting up somewhere at some bizarre some roadside Market getting out of scales to measure out gold

And he blows just to be precise He blows on the scales get the dust off of it you see a wave of dust flying up and just immediately disappears that dust

You know what? That is to God That's America Plus China plus Europe plus India a

South America plus Africa plus everywhere else to God He's scoffing at you

So that careers men thought they could scoff at him. The Lord is scoffing back here. You think you could call him a myth

You think you could conveniently reduce him to just a little baby so you don't have to worry about being intimidated by him

He's saying who do you think you are? your whole country combined with every other country

It's like dust to me. You dust your furniture wipe it with a cloth That's every world's

Nations like that. Who is he behold? Another look and see at the end of verse 15 pay attention.

This isn't the cultural God you were raised with. This is the real one He takes up the coastlands like fine dust, you know all those islands out there

You're from if you're in Israel, you look out the island of Cyprus out there. There's Sicily There's the port cities all along the

Mediterranean like Athens Maybe for us there's Britain. There's Japan. There's Cuba. There's Indonesia.

It's not even talking about Singapore. It's too small It's all to God like the dust that gathers on your table

When I set up to eat there you dust it off only takes you about a second Do you not see how great he is?

Verse 16 says all of Lebanon's forests Lebanon's renowned for its Cyprus for us.

They're not gather them all cut all those trees down this huge forest They're not even enough for God's altars

It's too little it's like saying for us like say all those redwood forests in northern,

California They're not enough for his fireplace In verse 17 all the nations are as nothing before him

Snack ribs men smugly boasted that Jerusalem was nothing before them They scoffed at the people.

They said we'll supply you will give you 2 ,000 horses if you can find 2 ,000 men able to ride them.

Ha ha ha just mocking Much of atheism today just mocks the Lord That's really all they ever do.

They never argue, but they don't reason that you really can't You just mock they just insult they try to intimidate you here.

God is is mocking back You are so impressed with yourselves But put it all together put you all together.

You're like a drop. You're like a speck here in verse 17 even worse They're like nothing

Before God God counts them as less than nothing. How do you be less than nothing? I don't know but they are

The word there verse 17 translated emptiness the same word in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 for when the earth was without form and Void it's empty

You're just as meaningless as empty isn't just as much it or unorganized mess Before God made the war as before when

God made the world and before he made it fit for human habitation We think we're so impressive we think we're so powerful we're so smart we're so enlightened we're so modern he says

You're a mess You're empty Who is he?

It's a good question And sure he was a baby for a while entering the world of time

Even while also that wondrous mystery also out of time out of the world was all as was also

God the Father and the Spirit What is he like What can you compare him to?

Really we can't Anytime we try You say being amazing it was like standing on the brink of the

Grand Canyon. That's that's still not sufficient this is a taste of of Being awestruck we get from him anytime.

We try to compare him to something else We end up making an idol and that's the danger of the world's idea of Christmas They like they like the idea of of God that Christmas gives them of a baby that they can handle

Sweetness that charms them maybe but it doesn't doesn't all them Doesn't judge them certainly

So he doesn't bring recompense He's not omnipotent is he it's not omniscient

We want an idol We want a God that we can reduce to something manageable Something we can compare to something else just like us made in our image someone who compares to us not someone who overshadows us or overwhelms us verse 18 craftsmen make idols

The good at it they can make them look really good. The world's really good at selling stuff It's really good at selling

Christmas Here of the idols the goldsmiths they overlay it with gold the adornment with silver chains it looks spectacular

Their idols look great Like silver bells on a Christmas tree For us maybe marketing gurus make our idols.

We can buy them for Christmas. They attract us They look so alluring Christmas our

Christians even preachers try to market a God Especially around Christmas to appeal to the crowds

To bring them in a Charming God come on in you'll like our God.

He's sweet He's compares to the best thing in your life. He's adorable. He's unintimidating.

He's just eight pounds six ounces He'll tell us what we want to hear. He doesn't fret frighten us with threats of recompense

It's what some are selling But that's not who he is

Who is he? He's mighty and meek he extends his arm to judge the evil and To draw his lambs to himself to his heart a shepherd to his people

Sure, he became incarnate in the flesh, but make sure you know who he really is

He is all -powerful He's omnipotent. He's all -knowing

Omniscient and he really is awesome Behold our